My Utah Trip: Family Week: Day 5, Park and movie

On Friday, my parents ward, (the church congregation they attend), was having a BBQ at one of the parks in the area. This park has been a family favorite my whole life, so we decided to go after lunch, and spend the afternoon at the park. We then attended the BBQ, and headed out to go to the Drive In Theater, which was playing WALL-E.

When you go to the drive in theater, you pay to see two movies. It is a double feature. WALL-E was playing first, and Mama Mia, a movie we had no desire to see, was playing second. Well in one of the other theaters, there was a different family friendly movie playing in the second slot. Some of my single siblings, had the idea that we should have half our cars parked in one lot for WALL-E and the other half parked in the other lot for the other movie. They said they had done this with friends previously, and by all rights you should be able to do it, after all you are paying to see two movies right?

So that was our plan. My brothers, P and S parked their cars in the second lot, while my dad and my brother T parked his car in the lot with WALL-E. We were all meeting there. Well when we got there, we noticed a big sign at the front that said, "No switching theaters." So we knew our plan wouldn't work. The problem is, that my brothers had parked in a different lot. And one of them had gotten in trouble when he and my sister who had ridden with him, had walked through to the lot we were parked on. So then my brothers had to figure out how to get their cars to the correct lots. It was kind of crazy, but we got all of our cars together before the show started.

After WALL-E was over we just left. No point sticking around for a movie you don't want to see.

So we watched WALL-E, which I highly recommend. I haven't been very impressed with the latest PIXAR films. Not because of plot, I thought they were hilarious. But because of language. As soon as I hear some one say a cuss word in a movie, the movie is ruined for me. And ever since The Incredibles, PIXAR seems to think they should ruin all their movies by putting foul language in them. Well WALL-E passed by my standards. It was a good clean movie. Something you don't find much anymore. Cinderella loved it too. In fact since that time, she had chosen what movies she wants to watch based on whether or not they have a preview for WALL-E in them.

My Utah Trip: Family Week: Day 4, Down Town

On Thursday, we loaded up in the car and drove to the Salt Lake City cemetery, to visit the grave of Gordon B. Hinckley, the previous Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

After the cemetery we headed to The Gateway Plaza. This plaza is like a really big outdoor mall. With all kinds of fancy shops as well as some other things, like a children's museum, and a planetarium. We went to the planetarium, and looked at all the cool stuff they had in the lobby. Then we headed over to the actual plaza.

They have one of those areas that squirt water out of the sidewalk. My youngest sister, N, was very excited to get to do that. And Cinderella was too. When we got there I realized I hadn't planned very well. We just figured we would let the kids run through in their clothing. I had brought a dry change of clothes for my kids, and my mom had brought some towels.

Well the plaza was packed. And all the kids were in swim suits. So I decided to look at the rules they had posted and see if they had a rule against street clothing being worn. Well they didn't specify that they needed to have a swim suit. But there was a sign that said all children under the age of 4 (I think) had to have a swim diaper, and rubber pants covering it. And then in big letters it stated that "People who have had diarrhea in the last 2 weeks need to stay out of the pool." Now here is the controversy. Does water shooting out of the sidewalk constitute as a pool?

Both my kids had been sick with diarrhea within the previous week. So do I keep them out? Or let them go in? As we debated what to do, someone pointed out, that the lack of swim diapers was probably a bigger issue. So I thought we could look around and see if there was any place nearby that sold swim diapers.

Then I realized that my husband had the opinion that we should obey all of the signs. The kids had been sick, they couldn't go. I hated to tell them that, because I knew how much some of them were really excited to play in the water. I didn't agree with the sign, and felt like it would be OK. But I could also understand where my husband was coming from.

He pointed out to me, that if our kids had been completely healthy and we let them do this, and some parent let their sick kids play, and our kids got sick, we wouldn't be too happy with that parent, so we shouldn't let our kids play either.

So much to the disappointment of Cinderella and Aunt N, we told them we couldn't do it. We then proceeded to return to Grandma's house, were we set up the kiddy pool I had bought, and a slip and slide, and let them all play in the water there. Unfortunately by that time, there were clouds, and it wasn't as hot. Oh well. You do what you have to do.

After our adventure for the day, everyone was quite wiped out, and ornery, so we decided to forgo miniature golfing, which was on the plan for that night.

Moments of Inspiration: Rise to the occasion

Lately I've been noticing how my Heavenly Father teaches me in just the regular moments of life.

I believe those times can be a lot more effective, if you record them, or share them. So unless they are incredibly personal, I am going to do both.

I have had two sick kids lately. Guy has a double ear infection, and hasn't been sleeping the best lately. As you can guess that has it's own effect on me. I have also been feeling a bit under the weather, and my home has been reflecting that.

We had a really ornery day today. We were all get on each other about something. A little after 4 this afternoon, I looked around my apartment, and noticed that there wasn't a room that didn't look like a tornado had blown through. It made me feel really discouraged, and I didn't want to do anything about it.

Then I had the moment of inspiration. You can choose to let the way you feel determine the way you respond to what is around you, or you can choose to rise to the occasion, and make your surroundings be the way you want them to be. I decided I didn't want it to be a mess. So I started one thing at a time, and started cleaning. Then I got the kids to help. Within an hour I had all the rooms picked up and vacuumed.

I realized, that it isn't just this way with messes, but all the challenges we face in life. We can let our circumstances determine our response, or we can choose how we will respond. It is all up to us.

My Utah Trip: Family Week: Day 3, Visit to other family

Wednesday morning my brothers, husband, and dad went golfing. While they were gone, my sister-in-law D gave hair cuts all around. My nephew was first, then Guy got his trimmed. Then we let Cinderella get hers trimmed. Cinderella then had her hair straitened, to make sure it was all even. It was darling. My sister was next, and then it was my turn.

Now if I get my hair cut, especially if I pay for it, I want it to be noticeable. But I never know what cut to get. My hair is so fickle. So I had her take it about mid neck.


This picture is one I had Cinderella take of me today. So it had a little bit of growth since it was cut.

After the men got home, and my hair was done, my little family left for my husbands cousin's house. His sister had just moved down to Utah, and was staying with the cousin, so we were able to visit with her as well. It was fun to interact with some other family that we don't get to see a whole lot. And our kids got to play with some of their second cousins, who are about the same age as them.

About dinner time, we headed over to my husbands aunt's home for dinner. We had a yummy BBQ, and got to visit with some more family.

After the BBQ, we headed back to my parents house. The whole gang was gathered around my parents fire pit, in the back yard, having a hot dog roast. We joined them and made some s'mores for the kids.

All in all it ended up being a fun day.

Defiance

So this morning, Cinderella hit a curve ball at me that I'm not quite sure how to deal with yet. Last night I watched one of my friends kids, until quite late. As a result, my kids ended up staying up quite a bit later than normal. To top it off, when I was getting Guy in his PJ's last night, I noticed he had a fever. We ended up putting our kids to bed before their friends left, but not by much. As soon as my friend picked up her kids, my husband and I decided to call it a night, without even cleaning up. And believe me, with 4 toddlers, it was a big mess.

Well this morning, Guy still wasn't feeling well, and was quite ornery all through breakfast. So I put him down for a nap, as soon as I could. Well Cinderella wanted to play Kwala on the computer, and because I figured it would be a quiet activity, allowing Guy to get his much needed rest, I allowed her to do so. She played for about an hour, and then stopped for a snack. Then she and I played a memory game, on the floor. Then she wanted to play the computer again. I decided to let her.

About half an hour later, Guy woke up from his nap. I let her play a little longer. Then I told her it was time to be done, and we needed to clean up.

I asked if she wanted me to turn on some music, while we cleaned up. She didn't respond, so I turned some on. Then I started to pick up books off the floor. She said "NO!" then came over and pulled a book out of the book case and set it on the floor. It's not like she was even looking at it. It was out and out defiance. Mom is picking up books, so I'm going to pull them out. I'm not sure how to handle that. I told her if she was going to act like that, I wouldn't let her play Kwala. Then she started whining in a baby voice, "I want to play Kwala, I want to play Kwala." It is driving me crazy, and she is being so ornery. Any suggestions?

Blog Book

One of my friends told me that you can make a blog book, where a company will print and bind your blog for you. So I was wondering, have any of you done anything like that? What service did you use? Would you recommend it?

French Toast

French Toast is a meal that is served at my parents house, but we rarely make it. Cinderella asked me one day if her toast was French Toast. I told her it wasn't so she asked me what French Toast is. I told her it is a kind of toast with egg on it. So this morning, she put an egg on her toast, and said she had French Toast.